Hi everyone!

So it’s been awhile and unfortunately I have nothing exciting to share. However, I have been successfully shamed by my sister to at least put some sort of communication on the blog about what is going on. So here I am.

I don’t think I need to remind everyone how crazy a year this has been. It’s not everyday that you go through a pandemic, though being in one now it certainly feels like it. And while there’s never a really good time for a pandemic, this one struck at a particularly turbulent point in my life. At the start of the year, I was going through some rather large life events. First, I got married (yay!) but then I was getting ready to move to another country for my partner’s work. We were going through the process of renting our place, packing our things, selling off what we could and then the border closed. Oops.

So I’ve moved back in with my sister thinking the border closure would last a few weeks or perhaps a month. The closest reference point we had for this kind of event was SARS and that ended up being fairly well contained and low impact. During this time, however, my brother was stuck working from home (like the rest of us) and arranged with my family to take over his child rearing duties since daycares were no longer operating. So for the next six months, I became a full time nanny.

It was nice spending the time really getting to know and help grow my nephews. I also got that first early taste of parenting and… phew, it’s a lot of work. As all parents know, some things must be sacrificed upon the altar of time in order to give children the attention and care they need. However, I was still plugging away at my writing which brings me to the next point.

I’m pleased to say that I’m working away on my second draft for the third Red Sabre novel. The working project name is Drops of the Moon but don’t get excited since that name can easily change. Certainly Cinderborn went through five or so different names before its launch. Drops of the Moon will be a daring adventure through the mountains as Felicity and her crew try to navigate the complicated politics of the Ruan Yu Ren while fending off the vicious attacks of the Ashfoot Confederacy. I’m excited to be exploring more of the western seaboard of Felicity’s world where philosophy, spiritualism and magick and blend together in an intoxicating mix. Hopefully that goes well.

I’ve also been receiving lots of… we’ll call it encouragement, to finish a little project that I wrote last year. Some of you may not know my writing schedule but I have two big project months: April and November. These are set aside specifically to create new narratives outside of the regular editing and revision process. November in particular tends to be when I try things a little more experimental and, as such, those projects generally don’t see the light of day. However, some early readers have been very excited over a mystery that I penned and would like to see it cleaned up. So that’s been added to my plate.

I have also been considering the future of this blog and how I want to continue contributing to it. I haven’t really settled on anything yet, hence my long silence. So if you have anything you’d like to see, please sound off in the comments! I appreciate all the feedback I get from you lovely people.

I also have a couple of other writing projects kicking around in various stages. These may or may not make their way into the public sphere so I’m hesitant to comment on them further. At any rate, I’m still alive and chugging along.

Stay safe! Stay healthy!